Amidst the impacts of the pandemic and economic crisis of the country, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) has allocated Rs. 1.6 billion on the main tourist campaign scheduled in February to reach the target of 2.5 million tourists in 2024,The Daily Morning Business learnt.
Speaking to The Daily Morning Business, SLTPB Director Marketing Dushan Wickramasuriya said: “We are aiming to surpass the 2.3 million tourist we had in 2018 along with the induction of the new tagline, ‘Sri Lanka – You’ll come back for more’ and provide the tourists the assurance and confidence that Sri lanka is a safe destination, they can come back.”
Moreover, According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) research shows that over 35% of the tourists always return to visit Sri Lanka.
Whereas, to boost the number of tourist arrivals the SLTPB is currently running a Check-in Campaign, a campaign to inform tourists that Sri Lanka is now secure and the tourists can visit any part of the country.
The next phase of the campaign is a thematic campaign to promote diverse segments of Sri Lanka along with the new tagline which will start in February 2024.
SLTPB is targeting five key markets at the start, such as the UK, Germany, France, India, and China while promoting different segments of Sri Lanka.
“We consider these markets as low-hanging fruits, especially, India and China,” he said
Moreover, the digital campaign will run for six months and the PR campaign will run for 12 months. Simultaneously, the Promotion Bureau will start expanding the campaign in other countries such as Russia, Australia, the Middle East, and Scandinavia.
In addition to that, the Bureau will conduct its other programmes such as visiting journalists and bloggers programmes.
Wickramasuriya pointed out that SLTPB collaborates with trade. They will pick some of the niche high-end segments in Bangladesh. Whereas they have a group of two operators from Bangladesh who are here to help with the process.
Alongside the international campaign a domestic campaign is in the pipeline to educate the locals about the tagline and also to inform the local people of the importance of tourism.
